High: Stories of Survival from Everest and K2

by Clint Willis (Editor), Eric Conger (Narrator), George Guidall (Narrator)

Everest and K2 are two of the most feared and respected peaks in the world. High offers, in vivid accounts, why both are among the world's most dangerous places, yet why the world's best climbers can't stay away from them.

Genres: Nonfiction, Mountaineering, Adventure, Audiobook, Travel, History, Biography

6 pages, Audiobook

First published December 22, 1998

Reviews

[Nigel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyable for anyone with a climbing bent reading wise. These are a good collection of stories about K2 and Everest over a number of eras. I found some of the earlier stories particularly interesting. In particular F S Smythe narrative of his climb on the 1933 Everest expedition was remarkable - the level of climbing with primitive equipment on an almost completely unknown route was very impressive. The other chapter I found really interesting was the one on the Wiessner controversy on K2 in 1939 - I'd never heard of this and it (& Smythe's) I'll try and read more about.

[Wendylou Biggs]

don't bother ... it's excerpts from other writings ... assemebled together in aparently random order ... and some of the excerpts just jump in (not so bad) but then jump back out at a point that leaves you hanging (or thinking maybe you fell asleep so you rewind and listen again ... but no ... his partner has fallen behind, may be dead in the snow bank, and he is fairly close to the summit because the tibetan prayer flags give him a sense of scale ... end of excerpt ... )

[Mac Daly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thrilling stories from climbers who attempted to climb the highest peaks and nearly didn't make it back alive.

[Ron S · Rating 4 out of 5]

An anthology devoted to the world's two highest summits spanning the years 1933 through 1996. The beauty of this book results from the qualities of its contributors, including Jon Krakauer, Galen Rowell, Walter Bonatti and Matt Dickinson.

[Sally Edsall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even if you have never been anywhere near a mountain, this is aterrific book. Actually, I did put it down....had to when I got towork, or occasionally to turn the light out at night. The short story format makes it an excellent companion volume for dipping into.

I found some of the K2 stories especially 'breath-taking' and the edge-of-the-seat drama present everywhere. I agree with the review that says the piece by widow Maria Coffey is a gem - another perspective on the mountain climbing experience.

I also liked the older, more historical tales, contrasting some of the worls views about climbing with more modern attitudes evident in some of the newer books, especially now focussing on the commercial aspects of climbing especially Everest.

Am I alone in thinking that mountain climbing to the point of summiting used to be a more collective, comradely pursuit, and now it is 'everyone for themself' ? I know there is a lot of bunk that could be said - and I don't hold that the class-ridden older (especially Bristish) school of mountaineering in the days of Mallory et al was some kind of 'golden age'. But on the other hand, there was something in the spirit of the times then lacking now...and the difference is not just money. The old Siege-like expeditions required vast amounts of sponsorship....but it was aimed at the collective effort, whereas now it is anyone who can stump up $65 000 of their own wealth.
I might be wrong, but I think there is something different now. Not being an expert, I'm interested to continue exploring this. This volume is a good place to start reflecting on some of those issues.

[Inez · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m honestly not sure what the point of this anthology is, or who it is meant to be for. If anything, it discouraged me from ever wanting to do high altitude climbing (not that I needed any discouragement, if I was in charge of the world I would ban people from climbing Everest). I knew it was a selection of stories and various accounts, but I didn’t realize those stories were excerpts directly lifted from other (longer) books and accounts. This made it feel rather disjointed and abrupt, and often the narrative would move onto a new account without a satisfying ending (because it wasn’t actually the ending to that particular account). I enjoyed it enough overall, though I admittedly enjoy reading about high altitude climbing (building my case to ban it). You could use it as a reference to read the actual first person accounts it includes, but you could also just google them too. Also Jon Krakauer 🤢🤢🤢🤢👎👎👎🤡🤡🤡

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the introduction, the editor talks about people like me who read these books about the extreme (crazy/obsessed), risk-taking, adrenaline junky people who climb these mountains. Why do we do it? Why do we read these books? I'd never do this kind of climbing. A 14er in Colorado is challenging enough for me and I am not in bad shape.

Sometimes the books seemed choppy but then again, it was choppy because it was about a few of these situations and I think some of the stories had been in magazines for these crazed people. Whatever, I remember the first and last stories the best- the cameraman who was climbing but not a real "mountaineer" and the K2 climbs. I guess K2 is tougher than Everest although not quite as tall. I was flying the other day and the pilot said we were at 20,000 ft while over the Pacific. And here I was listening to these guys climbing to 28,000 feet.

[Halina · Rating 4 out of 5]

*Mild spoiler*

Done and dusted. This book was interesting read as it provided short experts from different stories about everest and K2. Although I think I would of preferred to read the books as a whole instead of just short parts of them as sometimes I was confused to whether the mountaineers had actually made it home safe and alive.

I think my favourite story in this book was not one that took place on the summit but one that described the aftermath of reaching the summit. This included having extreme frostbite that when a nurse at a party touched his toe it fell off. What a hoot!!

[Christy Keeler · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. So many climbing books have happy endings and many fail to tell of the true hardships faced by climbers on the highest peaks. This is an anthology written by numerous world renown mountaineers who tell of realities faced during and after their ascents of K-2 and Everest.

In one story, an author recounts the after-effects of receiving frostbite. He does so in great detail—a condition I'd never read about. Too often, climbing books end with the success of the decent, neglecting the months following their harrowing experience. This book does not do that.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to this and EPIC. Both are excerpts from books by well-known climbers or adventurers. I seem to need stories of survival to help me deal with difficult times in my own life (it is currently the covid isolation and the lead up to the 2020 election that has me in high anxiety). It surprised me that nearly every story included the death of one member of the expedition. I had read the full accounts but liked hearing them read aloud. I liked that Willis included a piece by Tenzing Norgay.

[Lina · Rating 3 out of 5]

La sensación que me queda es de que sí que hay comportamientos parasuicidas en escalar esas montañas. Pienso mucho en lo que hace la mente humana y en que quizás sí que pensemos muy distinto las unas de las otras, aunque nos parezcamos. Muchos ni pueden contar este tipo de historias, pero no sólo los que murieron, sino también los que se devolvieron, los que se quedaron en el campo base y demás.
Entretenido, un poco mórbido también. Sí que nos lleva a subir a la cima y a preguntar si volveremos.
Pero la pregunta que tengo suele ser otra.
Me pregunto siempre qué pensarán los sherpas.

[Laurii · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is an anthology of excerpts from other books. I picked it up thinking it would be a good way to read some interesting stories from books I might not otherwise read. It was, but so many of the excerpts begin and end in the middle of the action, some lacking context (what year is it? what type of expedition is it? who are the climbers?) and some cutting off so abruptly, I looked back to see if I'd skipped pages (I hadn't).

[Page · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a collection of partial stories written by people who survived Everest and K2. They were interesting and some of them left me on the edge of my seat. The problem is that they were just bits and pieces. They started and ended randomly, leaving me feeling like I missed pages. It was disjointed which greatly affected my enjoyment.

[Jason Morrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone that will never even see Everest base camp in person, I live vicariously through books about expeditions. Regardless of success or failure, I could listen at length about any and all summit attempts. I grabbed the audiobook version of this and really enjoyed it. For those who have read Into Thin Air, or really anything about Everest or K2, you should find this a good read.

[Marsha Altman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a good place to start reading about Everest or K2. It's just snippets from other books, and the stories are out of context so unless you know all of the mountaineering terms already you will be lost. There is one very good story, which is about the controversy surrounding the 1939 expedition on K2.

[Apriel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice combination of stories from different expeditions to Everest and K2. I would recommended not listening to the audiobook. Because this is an anthology and many of the narrators sound very similar it was hard to tell sometimes when one story stopped and another began.

[Jennie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extreme mountain climbing has always excited me (though I would never do the same in real life). These stories are coloured by the time they are from, but shows how easily you can die on a mountain. I wish they included even more backstory to the accounts

[Ray Savarda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another can't-put-down selection of stories all about K2 and Everest.

[Karoliina · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was a good book to decide what to read next

[Samantha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting excerpts from other books that make a collection for this short read.

[James Bolognani]

A good mix of mountaineering stories. Some cool perspectives on life outside the expedition and life after.

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great set of stories and accounts from different decades of climbing. Terrific reading if you have any interest in this topic at all.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun read for the mountaineering/outdoors enthusiast, but the stories are hit and miss in their entertainment/excitement generation.

[Kathleen J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Horrifying tales but narrated well in audiobook version. Can’t count how many times I held my breath listening throughout

[Katie Avagliano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love the little snippets of these larger stories! But of course you miss out on how everyone got to these peaks

[Amy Chan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Selection of excerpts from various mountaineering expeditions (very interesting though pretty niche)

[Scott Sargent]

nan

[Ob-jonny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating selection of short stories about historical climbs of Everest and K2. The stories were written by the climbers themselves and so you get an honest, first person perspective which makes it especially powerful. The reader knows what each climber was thinking about at the time and the painful decisions that had to be made. I had never read stories about early attempts on either mountain before it had been first summitted and I thought it was so interesting. I'm used to reading books about recent attempts on Everest and K2 where the climbers had to fight for their survival. In these recent climbs the routes are well-known but in the early attempts the climbers were reaching places that had never been seen before and they had to be creative and come up with new ideas for how to make it beyond seemingly impenetrable barriers. The Everest climbers coming from the north for decades have had the luxury of using fixed lines get past the cliff near the summit. But the first people to reach that point had to figure a way to get past that barrier on their own before the first fixed lines could be installed. It was interesting to read how they described the problem in such detail and felt that it was hopeless but tried anyway. The early attempts in the 20s and 30s are interesting because they had to use such different strategies than today due to the logistics at the time. They needed a very long time to move equipment slowly up the mountain and on K2 they used as many as 9 camps instead of the 4 that are used today. They used a more brute force method with a huge team of assistants in the early days.
In the attempt on K2 in 1939 some of the climbers made bizarre, irrational decisions and it was a fascinating study of human psychology. The difficult conditions put people to the test and brought out either the best or worst in people. The short story format kept the book interesting and allowed you to learn about many different climbs over a long time period from the 1920s to the 1990s. Great book if you liked "Into Thin Air".

[Suman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to "High" while enduring the monotonous training for my Mt. Rainier climb. "High" is not so much a book as selections from different mountaineering books and articles. One of stories I had read before in "K2: the Savage Mountain", and another one, about the Fritz Wiessner's 1939 K2 effort, was familiar since Dave Roberts, who wrote the article for this work, retold the story with Ed Viesturs in "K2: Life and Death on the World's Second Highest Mountain". The other five stories were completely new to me, though.

Most of stories felt a bit boring, since they written by professional mountaineers, who, having endured so many dangerous situations leading up to the Everest/K2 attempt, almost feel detached from the positions they put themselves in. Of course, having forgotten their humanity, the pros fail to relate anything resembling human emotion. Interestingly, the two most interesting stories are written by an amateur on an Everest expedition (who describes the fear of climbing the mountain while also conjecturing why he lost pity toward his fellow man that high up), and a professional waiting to have parts of each foot amputated after his mountaineering travel (maggots start eating the dead flesh in his toes).

I will never end up on a K2 or an Everest, so I'll never know how these people felt, but it sure made the monotony of my training much easier to swallow.

[Shana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love to read about mountain climbing, for some reason, even though there is no way I would ever actually do it and I think the people who do it are kind of nuts. This book is actually a compilation of 8 short stories/excerpts from other books. I definitely liked the last 3 stories more than the first 5. I really enjoyed story number 6, about the guy with frostbite, which is both disgusting and darkly humorous. I also really enjoyed the story originally printed in "Outside" magazine about the 1939 disastrous K2 expedition and its leader. Since this book is a compilation of stories, it's not an engrossing book about a mountaineering disaster like Krakower's "Into Thin Air" or Jordan's "Last Man on the Mountain." However, I gave this book 3 stars because I think most people who like to read about mountain climbing would enjoy it.